Indians Deal Mustangs A Loss In LHC Action
by Jamie Brockman
The Oskaloosa baseball team used strong pitching and timely hitting to pick up a big conference win at home Thursday night against Dallas Center-Grimes 5-1.
Oskaloosa has now won nine of their last eleven games and improved to 13-5 overall and 9-4 in the LHC and pulled within a half-game of DC-G for the top spot in the LHC.
Colton Butler threw five strong innings to get the win, allowing one run on just two hits, with three strikeouts and three walks.
Osky blew open a scoreless game in the bottom of the third inning scoring three runs on five hits. Wyatt Krier singled to start it off, then stole second base and was sacrificed over to third on a bunt by Rian Yates. Tyler Miller then singled to score Krier, followed by two more singles from Colton Butler and Noah Van Veldhuizen. With two outs, freshman Will Schultz had the biggest hit of the game, a clutch two-out single scoring both Butler and Van Veldhuizen to put Osky ahead 3-0.
The Mustangs scored their lone run in the top of the fifth inning on a solo home run by Isaac Boley.
The Indians added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Butler led off with a single, then Van Veldhuizen laid down a bunt which led to a huge DC-G error when they overthrew to first base scoring Butler and Van Veldhuizen moved all the way to third. Cole Kraber then ripped a single to score Van Veldhuizen.
Cole Kraber relieved Butler on the mound to start the sixth inning pitching one and two-thirds innings, allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts and three walks before Wyatt Krier got the final out in the seventh to give Osky the win.
Oskaloosa scored five runs on eleven hits, committed 0 errors and left eight runners on base. DC-G scored two runs on four hits, committed one error and stranded seven runners on base.
At the plate, Krier had a single and scored a run while Rian Yates had a single and a sacrifice bunt. Tyler Miller had two singles, an RBI and scored a run. Butler had two singles and scored two runs, Van Veldhuizen had a single and scored a run, and Cole Kraber had two singles and an RBI. Will Schultz went 2-3 with two RBI.
Oskaloosa gets a nice break leading to another busy week next week with six games scheduled beginning Monday when they host Newton in a doubleheader starting at 5:30 pm. Tuesday Osky travels to Eddyville Blakesburg Fremont, Wednesday they travel to Norwalk for one game, then after a day off Thursday head to Pella for a doubleheader on Friday.
